Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!brunix!rca From: rca@cs.brown.edu (Ronald C.F. Antony) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Edu discounts in Germany (was Re: Steven P. Jobs reality distortion field?) Message-ID: <74230@brunix.UUCP> Date: 2 May 91 08:04:44 GMT References: <1991Apr21.060729.21077@rick.cs.ubc.ca> <1991Apr22.163450.1@sif.claremont.edu> <1504@toaster.SFSU.EDU> Sender: news@brunix.UUCP Reply-To: rca@cs.brown.edu (Ronald C.F. Antony) Organization: Brown University Department of Computer Science Lines: 25 In article Andy.Hewett@arbi.informatik.uni-oldenburg.de (Andy Hewett) writes: >There is NO discount for teaching or research or for anything. >The only exception is if we are prepared to buy 20 or more >(15% discount was the sum mentioned in an informal discussion). >Of course, if I was buying 20 lampshades then there would also be some >room for bargaining. As far as I know, this has to do less with NeXT than with the German Wettbewerbsrecht, i.e. laws similar to the U.S. anti-trust laws etc. It is legally not possible to give discounts to different sorts of customers on the basis of their differences. There exist still some discounts, but most of them use some legal twists. (i.e. setting up purchasing accounts, or you have to stat the intention to buy a certain number of systems, get a quantity discount and then cancel the rest of your order etc.) So although there are maybe also problems with the distributors, the main problem is in German laws. Ronald ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." G.B. Shaw | rca@cs.brown.edu or antony@browncog.bitnet